﻿SPECULATORS IN ORNITHOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 26l 



Matto Grosso, and on the confines of Peru and Chili. 

 Little that is new can he expected in Paraguay, after 

 the researches of Azara, even admitting the country 

 was released from the tyrannic and excluding laws of the 

 priestly despot who now rules it. Chili and Peru are 

 too arid and naked to excite great expectations regarding 

 their ornithology, although on the banks of the rivers, 

 where woods are to he found, many new species are 

 likely to be obtained. The birds of Cayenne are well 

 known, although no distinct work upon them has ever 

 been published. Surinam and Demerara are equally 

 rich; but the first has never been well investigated, 

 and although collectors have frequently gone to the 

 latter, and brought away the more splendid birds, we 

 are yet ignorant of the larger proportion of such whose 

 plumage is not very attractive. The researches of M. 

 Schomberg, however, now traversing the interior of 

 Guiana, will doubtless supply this deficiency, and add 

 numerous species to our systems passed over by the mere 

 amateur. In conclusion, we may safely assert, that the 

 most unexplored part of South America, so far as con- 

 cerns its zoology, is that immense portion formerly 

 called New Spain ; for it is not generally known that 

 Humboldt did little or nothing regarding the ornithology 

 of these tracts, which are perhaps equal to Brazil in the 

 variety and beauty of its natural productions. 



(217.) We have now answered the questions with 

 which we commenced this chapter; — what birds are 

 worth collecting, and where are the best to be obtained. 

 The young ornithologist, and the intelligent traveller, 

 may now know in what parts of the world their atten- 

 tion to ornithology is most needed,, and is most likely 

 to turn to profitable account. We use this latter term, 

 however, not in a commercial sense. It has been a 

 grievous error with many persons to suppose that the 

 collecting of subjects of natural history for sale in 

 England would be a source of great profit, and that, 

 because they hear of a bird or a shell being sold at an 

 enormous price^ more specimens of the same would be 

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